European Council

While MEPs continued their debate on the European Commission’s proposal to grant a specific budget under the multiannual financial framework to the ITER nuclear fusion research and engineering project, Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger announced to the member states’ research ministers, meeting in Brussels on 18 February, that he would organise a ministerial meeting of the ITER Council in Cadarache, France, in September this year.

European Union member state experts have agreed on a draft text for a new nuclear waste and spent fuel management directive that would allow permanent exports of waste from the EU under certain conditions.

"The Council (of Ministers) decides to express its support for the establishment of a nuclear fuel bank placed under the control of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)," said the ministers in a statement.

Aleksandras Abisala, chief negotiator over the extension of the Ignalina nuclear power plant, who used to speak about the considerable growth of the possibility to reach an agreement on the extension of the operation of the Ignalina nuclear power plant, now claims that Lithuania has lost this fight.

After the last week"s European Council in Brussels, when the hopes concerning the extension of the operation of the Ignalina nuclear power plant diminished, Abisala admits that Lithuania has lost the fight, lrt.lt writes.

Paris, 17 September: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and French President Nicolas Sarkozy today signed an agreement on cooperation in nuclear energy and agreements on strategic partnership which is expected to enhance all-round relations between the two countries.

"France and Slovakia have clearly opted for nuclear energy. It covers 50 per cent of electric energy consumption in Slovakia," the French presidential office said on the meeting.

After a meeting in Paris, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner have said that there has to be a debate on nuclear energy now that fuel prices are rising. The two ministers believe the European Union should be less dependent on oil and gas imports and more thought should be put into new energy sources including nuclear power.

Britain is seeking to change the rules governing renewable energy targets to make it easier for the UK to fulfil its commitment to promote clean energy, the Guardian has learned.

At present, only 3% of the UK's power comes from renewable energy, but ministers have agreed to increase this fivefold within 12 years. To help reach this goal, the government has started lobbying the EU over the way the target is calculated.

Austria is threatening to veto an EU resolution on a proposed plan to boost low-carbon technologies in Europe unless the bloc's 27 energy ministers agree nuclear research should not receive any extra EU funds, it emerged on Wednesday.